Merry Christmas - Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2012

Wishing all my family and friends a Merry Christmas 2012.

Review of UP by Jawbone

I purchased an UP device by Jawbone a month ago. For $129.99 I was expecting great things.

It advertises sleep tracking, 24/7 activity tracking, food and drink tracking, smart alarm, power nap, stopwatch mode, idle alert, nutrition database, barcode scanner, and an insight engine. For full disclosure, I purchased this right when I was having foot surgery. I only have experimented with the sleep tracking, 24/7 activity tracking, smart alarm, power nap, stopwatch mode, and idle alert.

Given all the talk I was hearing about how awesome this device is, I've been pretty disappointed. Basically, it is a wristband (available in multiple colors) that you can wear non-stop (except for swimming and deep sea diving). You download an app on your iPhone/iPad and can plug it in once or twice a day to do a sync. You also plug it in to a charger every 10 days and charge it from your computer. Those parts worked well. Here is what I found on the various options I tried:

1. Charging cap – the stupid charging cap falls off all the time. I lost it 6 times in the first five days and was not happy hobbling around trying to find it. I finally kept it off. Either figure out a way to keep this cap on (screw method) or get a better cap or provide all users with 20 free caps. EPIC FAIL
   
2. Sleep tracking – didn't work so well. Some nights it seemed to come out of sleep mode even if I didn't get up. I would be told I only slept 1 hour or so a night. It's amazing I am still functioning. They state that walking over 250 steps will take it out of sleep mode. Either I walked to the neighbors' bathroom if I got up or I sleepwalk. And what's with this 11 minutes to fall asleep every single night? FAIL.
   
3. 24/7 activity tracking – I didn't do a lot of activity because of the foot surgery, but it seemed to do OK on this. PASS
   
4. Stopwatch mode – I only did one calibration using the stopwatch mode, but it was ok. However, it takes a lot of button pushing to get it in the right mode. MEH
   
5. Smart alarm – It is supposed to wake you up during a certain time period when you are in a lighter sleep mode. This seems to work well if you are still asleep. However, if I have already gotten up and turned on awake mode, you would think it could figure out it didn't have to wake me up. MEH
   
6. Power nap – wakes you up after 30-45 minutes when you are in a lighter sleep mode. PASS
   

Luckily, there is a 60 day money back guarantee. Mine got packed up this morning and is being shipped back. The charging cap falling off constantly was actually the deal breaker for me.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you have had different results.

Baby It’s Cold Outside + Post Surgery Follow-up 2

Once the boot was off, I was allowed to walk one slow mile a day. Monday – very miserable. The foot hurt a lot and Twilight kept looking at me with an "Are we really going to walk this slow?" look of disbelief on her face. A very unimpressive 2.3 mph pace. Tuesday was slightly better and I got up to 2.7 mph and it hurt a bit less. Wednesday I had to walk a bunch for other things, so didn't walk.

Today was my second post surgery follow-up with Dr. Royall. I was expecting to hear that I would still be limited to 1 slowwwwww mile a day. Instead, he said my foot was coming along well and that the plantar fascia was nice and soft – which meant it was healing well. New rules:

1. Walk one hour a day at 4 mph for therapy.
   
2. I can still only do two hours at the New Years Revolution Run.
   
3. No running until pain is no more than a 1 or 2 at the worst during the day. Then only increase no more than 20% every 2 weeks.
   
4. Sleep in a night splint/Strassbourg sock.
   
5. Stretch the foot before getting out of bed.
   
6. Ice the foot 1 or more times a day, ibuprofen as needed, Biofreeze 3 times per day
   
7. Start stretching the calf and ankle.
   
8. I can start riding the Elliptigo again for cross training since it is not a pounding motion. Yay!
   

He thinks that the numbness I am experiencing on the top of the foot is from the boot and that it will gradually go away.

At the end of the appointment, he asked if I would consider being a sponsored athlete for him. In exchange for some race entries in local races, I would wear a shirt advertising his podiatry services. I indicated that this is definitely something I would be interested in.

One month more until the next follow-up appointment.

Taking my "therapy" to heart – Twilight and I bundled up and headed off on a walk to the library and back. The heel is still tender a bit and I had to push myself to get up to the 15 mm pace, but soon got in the swing of things. Dang! It is cold outside. Usually by now my body has started to adjust to the cold, but not running for four weeks has put me behind. This is going to take some adjusting to.

Coming back was when I realized how quickly the body gets out of shape. The last two miles were harder than the last miles of my last two marathons. The legs are stiff and heavy. Speed was okay – but it was definitely forced. I'm going to feel it tomorrow. However, it sure feels good to be getting back on track.

Post Surgery Followup and Plans

I had my Plantar Fasciotomy on November 21st.  I think I hold a record or something because people are amazed that I voluntarily had surgery on my birthday.  My feelings were: What else do I do for excitement at my age? and I get four days off from my primary job with pay that I can use to recuperate because of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Surgery went well and my sister drove me home to start the recuperation.  I was placed in a surgical boot and basically climbed into my bedroom to hide the next couple of days, only emerging to show up to Thanksgiving dinner for an hour on Thursday.

Not a lot of pain - for which I was grateful.  Just one really nasty bout of nausea the first night - which led to the joys of cleaning up my carpeting because I couldn't crawl quite fast enough to my garbage can.

I tried to stay off the foot as much as I could the rest of the week and used crutches or a crutch to help keep the pressure off.  I did work a lot on my second job starting on Friday - but actually took two full days to relax and rest.  I even got bored enough to go through my Amazon Kindle account and delete 150+ books that I had already read and wouldn't reread or didn't plan to read.

Fast forward to today.  I had my post surgical follow-up with Dr. Royall.  I did chew him out for not giving me any post surgical instructions and he admitted he messed up there. Luckily - this was foot surgery number 3 on the left foot and I was a pro at knowing most of the routines.

Dr. R removed the stitches and showed me that there was good "squishiness" in the Plantar Fasciia - which is a good sign.  Normally he only uses the needle in a surgery between 1 minute 45 seconds and 2 minutes 30 seconds and he had to work on me for 3 minutes 30 seconds because my Plantar Fasciia was pretty solid from scarring.

We discussed my theory that trying to switch this year from a heel striker to a midfoot striker probably aggravated underlying conditions and caused this injury.  I'm going to go back to being a heel striker and proud of it. It worked for me for 7 years.  I shouldn't have messed with it.

Next Steps

Dr. R seems to know I need to be told specifically what I can and cannot do.  Here is the plan for the next little bit:

• Wear the boot for 2.5 more weeks.  I can start wearing a shoe with my orthotic on December 17th.  Still not supposed to walk more than necessary (yeah - life is really cooperating with that).
• Starting on December 17th, I can slowly walk one mile a day. No running and not much more than that.
• Starting next Wednesday I can swim as much as I want as long as I don't push off with the left foot.  I think I'll throw pool running in.
• I can ride a recumbant bike as much as I want - but not on heavy settings.
• I can start doing core and upper body weight lifting - just can't do any that require standing or putting stress on the foot.
• I did get permission to go to the New Year's Revolution Run - but am limited to two hours of easy walking and no running.

Time to start eating healthy and use the month plus off to get off the extra weight, so running will be easier when I can start up.

More Stress

Of course, after being told to stay off my foot as much as I could, my son called in the afternoon in serious pain thinking he tore his rotator cuff as he pulled off his shirt.  With his dad out of town, I rushed up to Woods Cross and got him to a doctor.  Lots of praying on the way up there - we really didn't need another surgery on top of mine.  I was so relieved when he came out with a sling on and said it looks like a serious sprain.  

I decided I needed to get a few groceries. I'd been hoping earlier in the day my son could help me - but he was in worse shape than me and I dropped him off at his house to rest. 

Naturally - the motorized cart I picked had a dead battery and some woman who was walking really well grabbed the other one.  Had to hop around Smith's with my foot on a grocery cart - that didn't make me happy and I only got a few groceries to carry me through.

Need an Easy Button

Just kidding.  A friend of mine wrote a blog post yesterday on how so many people want things easy in life.  Check it out here at ireaderreview.

I wonder if some of the issues with my foot this year have been a result of my taking things too easy.  Four years ago I was in about as good of shape as I can recall. Heck, I was working 2 days after a hystericalectomy and running after two weeks.  But then I got lazy and quit spending time making sure I ate healthy and regained all the weight I had lost.  I don't organize menus and I don't cook healthy meals.  I'm not going to let myself be lazy in 2013 - I can't wait to see the changes. 

Plantar Fasciotomy anyone

I saw my podiatrist on Thursday and he asked how the foot was feeling from wearing the pressure pad on the orthotic as much as I could.  I told him that the foot still ached most of the time and that I could feel it tearing a lot. It had improved, but not as much as we had hoped.

We talked over options and the plans are for me to undergo a plantar fasciotomy with F.A.S.T. technique on my birthday. (I like to party in style on my birthday and drugs seem reasonable).

This is different than the release technique where they cut the fascia.  Basically, they take a long, hollow needle and poke a bunch of holes in the plantar fascia to get rid of the scar tissue and flush all the bad crap out.  Then - two weeks in a boot and two weeks in a stable shoe with my orthotic and I will be allowed to start running and walking again.

DNF at Fort Bliss Marathon

On November 10th, I participated in the first ever Fort Bliss Marathon.  It seemed like a great idea at the time.  I was visiting my daughter and son-in-law at their new duty station in El Paso, Texas and the marathon occurred during my visit.  When else will I be able to get in a marathon for only $45.

My son-in-law took me over to the base gym for the start of the race.  It should have been a clue that at the race meeting, there were less than 200 people listening for the marathon, half marathon and 5-K.

The marathon and half-marathon started at 7:30 a.m.   I was joking with the only other female marathoner that I saw that we might be in competition for overall winner.

This marathon covered a lot of the base.  Pretty soon, the other female and her husband and I were playing leap frog during run/walk breaks.  No one else in sight.  The roads were not closed, there were no sidewalks and the race was on concrete.  Also - no shade (although one water tower at mile 17 provided an entire 60 seconds of shaded bliss).

The first five miles or so were pretty nice.  It was still relatively cool out - although I dropped my long shirt and gloves at mile 1 because I was already getting warm.  We ran towards the mountains and had the sun at our back, so the view was fairly nice - although I was already getting tired of red sand, cactus, weeks and rocks - about all you could see except for barracks, buildings, and lots of army vehicles.

Around mile 6 we went under the freeway and I was a bit concerned when I went through the aid station because it was the first aid station with gatorade and they were out of cups.  I was desperate enough to drink out of the drizzle from the cooler.  Luckily - this was a solitary incident.

This was a flat course.  The only hills were up and down on overpasses over and under the freeway.  The concrete was brutal.  I had taped my foot well (or my daughter had), so I was not in pain, but I could feel the pounding.  At 11.5 miles the half marathoners headed back to the gym and finish line and the marathoners continued on to the other side of the base.

I had passed Erica and her husband at mile 6 and did not see them again until an out and back section at mile 16.  At that point I could see she was struggling and almost a mile behind me.  Turns out she dropped at that aid station.

About mile 14 one of the volunteers told me that I was the third woman.  I was kind of excited to actually have a chance to place in a marathon.  That didn't last for long.  Jenn and Jeremy caught up to me at mile 18 and started to leap frog each mile to the aid station.  About the time they caught up to me, the idea of taking third place was not very exciting any more.  About mile 19 - the idea of continuing on lost all enjoyment.  I was not having fun and the thought of pounding out two more hours on trashed legs no longer had any appeal.

At the medic tent at 19.5, I sat down, told them I was DNF'ing and called in my ride.

J&J took me to the finish where I got a nice rubdown and stretching from the massage team as they were shutting down.

I think there were less than 30 participants in the marathon and quite a few dropped.  It was brutal.  I was going to be in last place within a minute of dropping and there were only about 6 people left on the course at all.

My first DNF in a marathon - but no regrets, no tears, just tired and shaky legs.